Popular Post Cassylvania Posted December 9, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 9, 2022 (edited) Platinum #351 - Megaquarium EaCh FiSh In ThE oCeAn SwImS iN iTs OwN dIrEcTiOn. Have you ever wanted to own an aquarium? Have you ever wanted to work in one? I did. I went to school for it. I got my Master's degree in it. I wanted to be a marine biologist since I was about six years old, and I know many of you did too. I know this because I've worked with kids before and they all tell me that's what they want to be when they grow up. Either that or a professional gamer. Well, now I guess you can be both. No idea why it took this long to get an aquarium simulator, but you know I had to check it out. And...it was OK. I'm going to do some things with this review that I don't normally do, but understand where I'm coming from. I know sims. This isn't like me saying, "Oh, SaNiC rAcInG was kinda fun," or "Nickeldeon All-Star Brawl isn't as bad as I thought it would be." What the hell do I know about racing games or fighting games? Don't listen to me, guys. You go to the ice cream man to get ice cream. You come to me to get my hot takes on everything sim-related. This is my bread-and-butter. This is what I know. Let's do this. Now, first, I'm going to compliment the game. It's a good introduction to simulators. You're basically just building an aquarium, designing the layout and livestock, and hiring staff members to take care of the animals for you. You can play on the easiest difficulty, so do that and have fun. It's a 20-25 hour experience. That's on the low end for this genre. I'm also slow, so you could do it faster, and the strategies you use on one stage will more or less work on the others. The graphics are not worth mentioning, but I did. The music is one of the worst things I've ever heard. The UI isn't great, but we're going to get to that. The controls are fine. You can move the camera, rotate it, tilt it (which is I always like to see), and zoom in and out. If you zoom all the way in, you enter first-person mode. This is completely useless, unless you want to pretend you fell into the shark tank and you're screaming at your guests to save you. Their smiles will haunt your nightmares. Now, I often try (sometimes more successfully than other times) to draw a comparison between the game I'm currently reviewing and the last game I platinumed. It's just to provide some sort of cohesion between my reviews. You might think there's no way I could compare this game to Genshin, but there are actually several ways I could do it. The most obvious would be to talk about how fuckin' annoying fishing is in Genshin when you have to farm for those pages for the DLC trophy and Paimon keeps repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over -- or Kokomi's "respect the fish" line -- but I actually want to talk about currency. Yeah, I touched on this a little in my review, but Genshin has about four million types of currency in the game. You have currencies that you use for wishes, currencies that replenish, currencies that expire, currencies that can be exchanged for other currencies... It's a mess to keep track of. Yeah, this game does something similar... Instead of earning money, though, you earn points. There are prestige points, ecology points, and science points. (Those may or may not be their actual names. I'm too lazy to check.) You earn these points when visitors look at your tank and see fish. Each fish is worth a certain amount of points...for each of these. Take the Longhorn Cowfish, for example. It's worth 5 prestige, 18 ecology, and...0 science. Now, the ecology and science points are used for research (to gain access to new fish and equipment, respectively), but the prestige points are to increase your aquarium level, which unlocks more fish and equipment that can be researched. If it sounds like I'm making this confusing, I'm doing it on porpoise. I couldn't make heads or tails of this while I was playing. Why? Because it's not as simple as you think. You see, you don't gain 2 prestige just because you have a Longhorn Cowfish in a tank. You have a chance of generating prestige, which is based on the number of the same species in that tank. More fish of the same species = higher percentage chance. So, you might think, "Well, fill the tank with the same kind of fish!" NO. Because each tank has a capacity and each fish has a size. If you build a tank with 28 capacity and each Longhorn Cowfish is size 4, how many Longhorn Cowfish can you fit in one tank? Trick question. The answer is three. Longhorn Cowfish actually grow from size 4 to size 9, meaning you'll eventually need to sell some or move them to a bigger tank. (And no, you cannot change the size of a tank once it's made. You'll have to make a new one.) "OK, not a big deal," you say. "I'll just build the biggest tank EVAR, divide the capacity by 9, and put that many Longhorn Cowfish in it." Yeah...except eventually you max out the percentage chance to gain prestige, so it's probably not worth going above that number. In that case, you're probably better off spending that capacity somewhere else. "SHARKS1!11!" you scream. THEY EAT COWFISH, YOU FOOL. Do you think your guests want to see that? No, I'm pretty sure they don't and it costs you prestige because that meter is a fickle mistress. It's not as simple as gaining prestige all the time. It seems to plateau at some point and then you can actually start losing prestige for reasons that are beyond me. "OK, no sharks. How about a cute Emperor Angelfish?" Cute? Are you insane? They're fuckin' bullies. You put them with a cowfish and they'll steal his lunch money. For, you see, Emperor Angelfish have the "Bully" tag and Longhorn Cowfish have the "Wimp" tag. You better make sure you're checking those too. You're getting a little nervous now. "C-cuckoo Wrasse...?" ...That's a coldwater fish. You can't mix coldwater fish with tropical fish. "SEAHORSES!" SEAHORSES ARE RACIST. You can't mix them with other species. "Starfish... Starfish have to be fine." Fine dining for cowfish. "FINE! Schooling Bannerfish. They're tropical, they're not bullies, they don't eat cowfish, and they don't get eaten by cowfish... Are we done?" Hey, that's a good idea. Just drop your six bannerfish in the tank. "Six!?" Well, yeah. They have the "Shoaler" tag. Need to have at least six of them in the group. "But...they have a size of 5. That's like...30 capacity!" Oh, they have the "Active Swimmer" tag too, which means they need at least 30 capacity anyway. "How many tags are there!?" Schooling Bannerfish also have the "Plant Lover" tag, so you're going to need at least 2 Grass points per fish in that tank. "WTF are Grass points!?" Oh, right! Every tank can also be decorated, so there are Grass points, Rock points, Shelter points...and you're limited by space there too, so you'll need to choose carefully! "So, I need a tank big enough to hold SIX Schooling Bannerfish and then enough Longhorn Cowfish that I get to 100% prestige chance, plus enough grass to make the bannerfish happy?" Well, if you want to maximize your prestige chance for the bannerfish, you'll need 11 of them... "OKAY! Eleven Schooling Bannerfish. Eleven Longhorn Cowfish. Twenty-two grass for those little bastards. The tank is complete!" Sure, if you want the fish to die from a lack of oxygen and heat. Did I mention Temperature and Oxygen points yet? How about Water Quality points? "How am I supposed to remember all of this!?" Just hook up a heater and a filtering apparatus. They come in different sizes, though, and you're probably going to need one for that oversized tank you just built... "Done. I hope the guests burn themselves on the heater." I don't think that feature is programmed into the game, but it might be a good idea to put the equipment where only the staff can reach it. You can use walls and staff doors for that! "Okay. I put a pump in a backroom, hooked up all of the equipment to it, and connected it to my tank. WHY ARE MY FISH DYING!?" They need to eat, you know. Longhorn Cowfish love cockles! "That's not a real word..." Schooling Bannerfish love green pellets! You're going to need both. "OK. I threw down one box of cockles and another of green pellets. Are we done?" You used a Deep Wall tank, correct? "Yes... I had to because the other tanks were too small to fit your ridiculous requirements." Deep Water tanks are too high for staff members to reach normally! You'll need a platform and stairs to...hey, where are you going!? "TO PLAY CALL OF DUTY!" Oh... well then. I guess I'm just talking to myself again. Obviously, there's a lot to the game. That's expected with a sim. The majority of the game is figuring out what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, because there's a bit too much going on, I think the game could've benefitted from a better UI. There are several features I didn't particularly like. First, it's annoying having to scroll through the side menu every time you want to access something. Pressing left on the directional pad opens the side menu, but it always defaults to the top option (Building). The second option is Tanks, followed by Livestock, Equipment, Decorations, Tools, Facilities, and Search (that I never used but actually could be pretty helpful). Then, of course, you have scrolling within each of these to find the object that you want. Not so bad in the beginning with your selection is limited, but it gets cumbersome later on. The second feature that could've been nice is a compatibility indicator. There are symbols, for example, that tell you whether a fish is a Wimp or a Bully. But there are so many other symbols too that it's hard to remember what they are all. I kinda wish you could just select a tank and then add fish or objects through that menu, with a guide or color indicator letting you know what is incompatible and why. This sometimes happens when you hover a fish over a tank that already has other species -- like, it might say Bullies are present if the fish you're holding is a Wimp -- but it doesn't always happen and I'm not sure why. You also have some species that prefer to be alone, while others prefer to be with the same kind. Even purely from an educational perspective, I think the game could've benefitted from being more user-friendly. But...the biggest problem is the performance issue. This game crashed on me several times. It auto-saves at the start of every day, so not a big deal, but it seems to get worse in later stages and in later parts of each level. That's probably why there's a limit to 200 fish. I only hit this towards the very end of the last stage, but I could imagine that being a bit disappointing in sandbox mode. So, what's the actual objective in the game? Well, the platinum is pretty straightforward. There are ten stages. If you beat all ten of them, you basically get the platinum. All the other trophies should come along the way. Each stage gives you one or more tasks that you must complete in order to unlock the next task or finish the stage. Because you can play on Easy, this isn't too bad. I never had an issue with money or space, making it very different from most sims I've played. In fact, it's really only time and those pesky prestige points that might hold you back. The bottleneck you'll usually run into is the one that asks you to earn a certain amount of prestige. That's because...like most sims, you'll eventually need to forego creativity in favor of making progress. Two Point Hospital made this famous by forcing you to maximize efficiency over everything else. I remember having a literal blueprint in front of me of how to build every room optimally, maximizing space and minimizing the time it would take NPCs to move around the hospital. Even the frames of animations mattered. Here, it's nothing like that. For the most part, you can be creative and still succeed. In the last stage, however, it's a bit different. You need 5800 prestige. For that, you're going to need to use the most OP item in the game: the arrow. It's one of the first options under the Facilities menu. With this, you can tell your guests which direction to walk. If you want to maximize efficiency, what you do is direct all the traffic either clockwise or counter-clockwise around your aquarium. For me, I made one big loop, with a large room on the inside for my staff only (where I'd store all the food) and an even larger room on the outside for the pumps. Making good use of walls and staff doors prevents your guests from wandering too far away from the tanks. You might also want seats, bathrooms, and vending machines, but I don't know how important this is when generating prestige -- which, again, is the only real challenge the game has to offer. Another unfortunate thing is that you unlock the best stuff at the end of game. Like the auto-feeder! That would've been amazing if I actually got to use it. Likewise...I don't think is a spoiler...the very last task you're given in the final level is to place a whale in a tank. It's the only whale you're given in the game. When you place it, the credits roll and you get to watch the whale swim around. That's neat, but I kinda would've liked to...I dunno, play the game with the whale for a bit. You build up all that hype and then it's over. I mean, how would you feel if I was just about to give my overall thoughts on a game and Edited December 9, 2022 by Cassylvania 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 Wow, you just got cut off, I guess the message length was way too long. I could have just said "I hated this game, I suffered through this game, don't play this #$**#ing sh**" and not got truncated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serrated-banner9 Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 14 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Platinum #351 - Megaquarium EaCh FiSh In ThE oCeAn SwImS iN iTs OwN dIrEcTiOn. Have you ever wanted to own an aquarium? Have you ever wanted to work in one? I did. I went to school for it. I got my Master's degree in it. I wanted to be a marine biologist since I was about six years old, and I know many of you did too. I know this because I've worked with kids before and they all tell me that's what they want to be when they grow up. Either that or a professional gamer. Well, now I guess you can be both. No idea why it took this long to get an aquarium simulator, but you know I had to check it out. And...it was OK. I'm going to do some things with this review that I don't normally do, but understand where I'm coming from. I know sims. This isn't like me saying, "Oh, SaNiC rAcInG was kinda fun," or "Nickeldeon All-Star Brawl isn't as bad as I thought it would be." What the hell do I know about racing games or fighting games? Don't listen to me, guys. You go to the ice cream man to get ice cream. You come to me to get my hot takes on everything sim-related. This is my bread-and-butter. This is what I know. Let's do this. Now, first, I'm going to compliment the game. It's a good introduction to simulators. You're basically just building an aquarium, designing the layout and livestock, and hiring staff members to take care of the animals for you. You can play on the easiest difficulty, so do that and have fun. It's a 20-25 hour experience. That's on the low end for this genre. I'm also slow, so you could do it faster, and the strategies you use on one stage will more or less work on the others. The graphics are not worth mentioning, but I did. The music is one of the worst things I've ever heard. The UI isn't great, but we're going to get to that. The controls are fine. You can move the camera, rotate it, tilt it (which is I always like to see), and zoom in and out. If you zoom all the way in, you enter first-person mode. This is completely useless, unless you want to pretend you fell into the shark tank and you're screaming at your guests to save you. Their smiles will haunt your nightmares. Now, I often try (sometimes more successfully than other times) to draw a comparison between the game I'm currently reviewing and the last game I platinumed. It's just to provide some sort of cohesion between my reviews. You might think there's no way I could compare this game to Genshin, but there are actually several ways I could do it. The most obvious would be to talk about how fuckin' annoying fishing is in Genshin when you have to farm for those pages for the DLC trophy and Paimon keeps repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over -- or Kokomi's "respect the fish" line -- but I actually want to talk about currency. Yeah, I touched on this a little in my review, but Genshin has about four million types of currency in the game. You have currencies that you use for wishes, currencies that replenish, currencies that expire, currencies that can be exchanged for other currencies... It's a mess to keep track of. Yeah, this game does something similar... Instead of earning money, though, you earn points. There are prestige points, ecology points, and science points. (Those may or may not be their actual names. I'm too lazy to check.) You earn these points when visitors look at your tank and see fish. Each fish is worth a certain amount of points...for each of these. Take the Longhorn Cowfish, for example. It's worth 5 prestige, 18 ecology, and...0 science. Now, the ecology and science points are used for research (to gain access to new fish and equipment, respectively), but the prestige points are to increase your aquarium level, which unlocks more fish and equipment that can be researched. If it sounds like I'm making this confusing, I'm doing it on porpoise. I couldn't make heads or tails of this while I was playing. Why? Because it's not as simple as you think. You see, you don't gain 2 prestige just because you have a Longhorn Cowfish in a tank. You have a chance of generating prestige, which is based on the number of the same species in that tank. More fish of the same species = higher percentage chance. So, you might think, "Well, fill the tank with the same kind of fish!" NO. Because each tank has a capacity and each fish has a size. If you build a tank with 28 capacity and each Longhorn Cowfish is size 4, how many Longhorn Cowfish can you fit in one tank? Trick question. The answer is three. Longhorn Cowfish actually grow from size 4 to size 9, meaning you'll eventually need to sell some or move them to a bigger tank. (And no, you cannot change the size of a tank once it's made. You'll have to make a new one.) "OK, not a big deal," you say. "I'll just build the biggest tank EVAR, divide the capacity by 9, and put that many Longhorn Cowfish in it." Yeah...except eventually you max out the percentage chance to gain prestige, so it's probably not worth going above that number. In that case, you're probably better off spending that capacity somewhere else. "SHARKS1!11!" you scream. THEY EAT COWFISH, YOU FOOL. Do you think your guests want to see that? No, I'm pretty sure they don't and it costs you prestige because that meter is a fickle mistress. It's not as simple as gaining prestige all the time. It seems to plateau at some point and then you can actually start losing prestige for reasons that are beyond me. "OK, no sharks. How about a cute Emperor Angelfish?" Cute? Are you insane? They're fuckin' bullies. You put them with a cowfish and they'll steal his lunch money. For, you see, Emperor Angelfish have the "Bully" tag and Longhorn Cowfish have the "Wimp" tag. You better make sure you're checking those too. You're getting a little nervous now. "C-cuckoo Wrasse...?" ...That's a coldwater fish. You can't mix coldwater fish with tropical fish. "SEAHORSES!" SEAHORSES ARE RACIST. You can't mix them with other species. "Starfish... Starfish have to be fine." Fine dining for cowfish. "FINE! Schooling Bannerfish. They're tropical, they're not bullies, they don't eat cowfish, and they don't get eaten by cowfish... Are we done?" Hey, that's a good idea. Just drop your six bannerfish in the tank. "Six!?" Well, yeah. They have the "Shoaler" tag. Need to have at least six of them in the group. "But...they have a size of 5. That's like...30 capacity!" Oh, they have the "Active Swimmer" tag too, which means they need at least 30 capacity anyway. "How many tags are there!?" Schooling Bannerfish also have the "Plant Lover" tag, so you're going to need at least 2 Grass points per fish in that tank. "WTF are Grass points!?" Oh, right! Every tank can also be decorated, so there are Grass points, Rock points, Shelter points...and you're limited by space there too, so you'll need to choose carefully! "So, I need a tank big enough to hold SIX Schooling Bannerfish and then enough Longhorn Cowfish that I get to 100% prestige chance, plus enough grass to make the bannerfish happy?" Well, if you want to maximize your prestige chance for the bannerfish, you'll need 11 of them... "OKAY! Eleven Schooling Bannerfish. Eleven Longhorn Cowfish. Twenty-two grass for those little bastards. The tank is complete!" Sure, if you want the fish to die from a lack of oxygen and heat. Did I mention Temperature and Oxygen points yet? How about Water Quality points? "How am I supposed to remember all of this!?" Just hook up a heater and a filtering apparatus. They come in different sizes, though, and you're probably going to need one for that oversized tank you just built... "Done. I hope the guests burn themselves on the heater." I don't think that feature is programmed into the game, but it might be a good idea to put the equipment where only the staff can reach it. You can use walls and staff doors for that! "Okay. I put a pump in a backroom, hooked up all of the equipment to it, and connected it to my tank. WHY ARE MY FISH DYING!?" They need to eat, you know. Longhorn Cowfish love cockles! "That's not a real word..." Schooling Bannerfish love green pellets! You're going to need both. "OK. I threw down one box of cockles and another of green pellets. Are we done?" You used a Deep Wall tank, correct? "Yes... I had to because the other tanks were too small to fit your ridiculous requirements." Deep Water tanks are too high for staff members to reach normally! You'll need a platform and stairs to...hey, where are you going!? "TO PLAY CALL OF DUTY!" Oh... well then. I guess I'm just talking to myself again. Obviously, there's a lot to the game. That's expected with a sim. The majority of the game is figuring out what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, because there's a bit too much going on, I think the game could've benefitted from a better UI. There are several features I didn't particularly like. First, it's annoying having to scroll through the side menu every time you want to access something. Pressing left on the directional pad opens the side menu, but it always defaults to the top option (Building). The second option is Tanks, followed by Livestock, Equipment, Decorations, Tools, Facilities, and Search (that I never used but actually could be pretty helpful). Then, of course, you have scrolling within each of these to find the object that you want. Not so bad in the beginning with your selection is limited, but it gets cumbersome later on. The second feature that could've been nice is a compatibility indicator. There are symbols, for example, that tell you whether a fish is a Wimp or a Bully. But there are so many other symbols too that it's hard to remember what they are all. I kinda wish you could just select a tank and then add fish or objects through that menu, with a guide or color indicator letting you know what is incompatible and why. This sometimes happens when you hover a fish over a tank that already has other species -- like, it might say Bullies are present if the fish you're holding is a Wimp -- but it doesn't always happen and I'm not sure why. You also have some species that prefer to be alone, while others prefer to be with the same kind. Even purely from an educational perspective, I think the game could've benefitted from being more user-friendly. But...the biggest problem is the performance issue. This game crashed on me several times. It auto-saves at the start of every day, so not a big deal, but it seems to get worse in later stages and in later parts of each level. That's probably why there's a limit to 200 fish. I only hit this towards the very end of the last stage, but I could imagine that being a bit disappointing in sandbox mode. So, what's the actual objective in the game? Well, the platinum is pretty straightforward. There are ten stages. If you beat all ten of them, you basically get the platinum. All the other trophies should come along the way. Each stage gives you one or more tasks that you must complete in order to unlock the next task or finish the stage. Because you can play on Easy, this isn't too bad. I never had an issue with money or space, making it very different from most sims I've played. In fact, it's really only time and those pesky prestige points that might hold you back. The bottleneck you'll usually run into is the one that asks you to earn a certain amount of prestige. That's because...like most sims, you'll eventually need to forego creativity in favor of making progress. Two Point Hospital made this famous by forcing you to maximize efficiency over everything else. I remember having a literal blueprint in front of me of how to build every room optimally, maximizing space and minimizing the time it would take NPCs to move around the hospital. Even the frames of animations mattered. Here, it's nothing like that. For the most part, you can be creative and still succeed. In the last stage, however, it's a bit different. You need 5800 prestige. For that, you're going to need to use the most OP item in the game: the arrow. It's one of the first options under the Facilities menu. With this, you can tell your guests which direction to walk. If you want to maximize efficiency, what you do is direct all the traffic either clockwise or counter-clockwise around your aquarium. For me, I made one big loop, with a large room on the inside for my staff only (where I'd store all the food) and an even larger room on the outside for the pumps. Making good use of walls and staff doors prevents your guests from wandering too far away from the tanks. You might also want seats, bathrooms, and vending machines, but I don't know how important this is when generating prestige -- which, again, is the only real challenge the game has to offer. Another unfortunate thing is that you unlock the best stuff at the end of game. Like the auto-feeder! That would've been amazing if I actually got to use it. Likewise...I don't think is a spoiler...the very last task you're given in the final level is to place a whale in a tank. It's the only whale you're given in the game. When you place it, the credits roll and you get to watch the whale swim around. That's neat, but I kinda would've liked to...I dunno, play the game with the whale for a bit. You build up all that hype and then it's over. I mean, how would you feel if I was just about to give my overall thoughts on a game and i think we gonna need a part 2 just like genshin impact 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted December 11, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2022 (edited) On 12/9/2022 at 9:51 PM, Taruta13 said: Wow, you just got cut off, I guess the message length was way too long. I could have just said "I hated this game, I suffered through this game, don't play this #$**#ing sh**" and not got truncated. Dang, I hate when that happens. On 12/10/2022 at 2:49 AM, serrated-banner9 said: i think we gonna need a part 2 just like genshin impact No time for a part 2! I just realized it's December (I'm a little slow), so we need to get started on the annual awards ceremony. I'm probably not going to go as crazy as I did last year. In fact, I was working on a drawing that included all the games I played in 2021, but I still haven't finished it... There were just so many games. I suspect I played even more in 2022. Anyway, let's just see what games are eligible for the awards this year. Again, my general rule is that I need to have completed the game sometime between January 1, 2022 and now. I'm excluding any game that I only played to mop up DLC trophies (e.g. Terraria, Cities: Skylines), any unfinished game (e.g. Doom Eternal), and any game I started playing or will finish playing after this post. December games get the short end of the stick. Not much I can do about that. I will also be excluding Genshin Impact from this list. Why? Because otherwise we'd have a repeat of 2020, where I didn't even bother with the awards because Persona 5 Royal would've swept every category. Just know it would get my vote for GOTY, best graphics, best music, and maybe even best voice acting. (Was that a category last year? It should be.) I'm also going to exclude the Demon's Souls remaster. I've talked enough about that game and you already know my feelings towards the series. The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Introduction I'm not even going to bother checking to see if that's what I called them last year. I remember giving it a ridiculous title. In chronological order by completion date, our contestants this year are... Child of Light Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights UnderMine Carto The Last Campfire Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy Steam Tactics Typoman: Revised Going Under Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Little Nightmares II Team Sonic Racing Tales of Arise Hitman GO Planet Coaster Shady Part of Me SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Death's Door Songbird Symphony N.E.R.O. Figment Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Kaze and the Wild Masks Lost Words: Beyond the Page The Survivalists Wytchwood Superliminal Deponia Doomsday Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Days Gone Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Rocketbirds 2: Evolution Maneater Cat Quest II Stray Fe Bubsy: Paws on Fire Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA Kena: Bridge of Spirits Tails of Iron Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream Coffee Talk The Wild at Heart Erica Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Young Souls Cult of the Lamb Creaks Greak: Memories of Azur Outer Wilds Xenon Valkyrie+ Othercide Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe CrossCode Chicory: A Colorful Tale Marsupilami: Hoobadventure Megaquarium ...I'm pretty sure that's more games than I did last year, and it doesn't include the game I spent nearly 900 hours on. This new-game-every-week thing has really done a number to my sanity. Alright. We need some categories now. I kinda want...I dunno, maybe ten posts dedicated to this. So, we'll choose seven sub-categories and then split GOTY across three posts (for third, second, and first place). Expect a post every other day, I suppose. Best/Worst Music Best/Worst Voice Acting Best/Worst Graphics Best/Worst Story Best/Worst Character Biggest Surprise/Disappointment Best/Worst Game of the Year Like I said, six sub-categories and three posts for GOTY. Edited December 29, 2022 by Cassylvania 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted December 11, 2022 Share Posted December 11, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Dang, I hate when that happens. I thought it was intentional and found it to be very clever. Edited December 11, 2022 by Rally-Vincent--- 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted December 11, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said: I thought it was intentional and found it to be very clever. (It was. I was referencing the game ending too abruptly.) The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Music Before we begin the awards, I'd like to introduce you to my lovely assistant this year. Lea from CrossCode, would you please say hello and tell us a little about yourself? LEA: Hi! ... Music to my ears. Speaking of music, I nearly went deaf listening to some of these soundtracks. If some of you ever wonder why I prefer to play most of my games with Spotify on, it's because of stuff like this. Worst Music (2022) One of the reasons I usually exclude December games from these awards is because there's an inherent bias towards games I played recently. The thing is, this shit was so bad that it got me to actually have an awards ceremony this year. I was perfectly content to forego this whole thing and just crown Genshin the champion of 2022. Granted, I don't expect much from a sim. They usually use stock music. The problem is there are only a handful of songs, they are very short, and they are WAY too obnoxious and upbeat to be on loop. I didn't compare this game enough to Two Point Hospital in my review, but I remember that game struggling with the same issue. Almost every song was a three minute jingle that would start to grind on your ears after a while. But TPH had something like FORTY songs that it would cycle through, and it had that chill "On Call" song that I loved and eventually made my default track. Megaquarium had like...three songs. I'm not even kidding. How bad is it? Listen for yourself. Are those dogs barking? Monkeys chirping? What is going on? LEA: [covers ears] Why!? I'm not saying it's a bad track. (I guess I kinda am since that's the category.) It's catchy. I want to jam to it. But it's main menu music at best, NOT the kind of track you subject the player to during regular gameplay. How is anybody supposed to concentrate with all that nonsense going on in the background? I'm anxious just listening to it. Make it stop. (Marsupilami was a close runner-up here. Again, not to harp on the most recent games, but those songs -- particularly the one used in EVERY BONUS STAGE IN THE GAME -- got old fast. It's some Spanish-themed thing, which doesn't even make sense in context of the rest of the game.) Now, for BEST music, we have several good options here. I'm not always going to nominate games. Sometimes I know what's going to win an award before I even start writing. But for best music, I really need to go through the entire list and see what jumps out at me. Currently, there are four games that I think could make a run here. Chronologically, they are: Songbird Symphony, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, Creaks, and Othercide. Probably not the four you were thinking of. In fact, there's a very good chance you think I'm on drugs. But one thing you have to remember, guys, is that (1) I play a lot of games either on mute or with my own music playing in the background, and (2) I can't remember the soundtrack of most of these games without having to replay them, which would take a whole other year. I guess that's two things. If I COULD remember every game I played, there's a good chance Bloodstained 2 or Kaze would be in the running, as I know those were both based upon absolute bangers from the SNES days. But since I can't remember, I have to give the nod to the games whose soundtracks still live in my head. Songbird Symphony is a rhythm-based game. Of course it would have a memorable soundtrack. Rocketbirds has a soundtrack (with vocals!) that I'm pretty sure was made exclusively for the game. That's pretty cool and unique. Creaks... I mean, if there was an award for the most surprisingly good soundtrack, it would win that. I wasn't expecting something so awesome. I particularly loved how the music would change when you reached certain stages in the puzzles. It's like the game was rewarding you for solving something. And Othercide had absolutely no right to have a main menu screen with such fuckin' awesome music. If only the rest of the game was like that... But I'm getting ahead of myself. Best Music (2022) I sold myself on that one. Probably would've given it to Rocketbirds if I hadn't played the game back in 2013 and bought the soundtrack, but I loved the incorporation of music into this game. It's so quirky and vibrant and spooky, all at the same time. I don't even know what some of those instruments are. As I always say, music is a bit like sorcery to me, so I can't explain why I like something... I just know when I do. Creaks is an OK puzzle game with no dialogue and a very basic story, but the music absolutely brings it to life. I can probably recommend the game on that alone. EDIT: Figment had a really good soundtrack too. I probably posted this too soon, but I think Creaks would still beat it out. EDIT 2: Barely. EDIT 3: Fuck it. They're tied. Edited December 12, 2022 by Cassylvania 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serrated-banner9 Posted December 11, 2022 Share Posted December 11, 2022 49 minutes ago, Cassylvania said: But one thing you have to remember, guys, is that (1) I play a lot of games either on mute or with my own music playing in the background, and (2) I can't remember the soundtrack of most of these games without having to replay them, which would take a whole other year. I guess that's two things. If I COULD remember every game I played, there's a good chance Bloodstained 2 or Kaze would be in the running, as I know those were both based upon absolute bangers from the SNES days. But since I can't remember, I have to give the nod to the games whose soundtracks still live in my head. couldn't you just look up the soundtrack on youtube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 11, 2022 Author Share Posted December 11, 2022 Just now, serrated-banner9 said: couldn't you just look up the soundtrack on youtube? I could (and did), but I don't think that's fair for two reasons. One, because I can't realistically listen to every soundtrack for every game I played this year. That would take too long. And two, I feel like the fact I remember the soundtrack in some games over others says something about how memorable they are. That said, I obviously panicked when I saw I overlooked some games. It was really disrespectful for me to not even include Figment on that list. I just played too many damn games this year to keep track of them all. The truth is that it's hard to just pick one. Even that track in Megaquarium is pretty good if you're only listening to it once. I dunno. It's the reason I do the music award first. It's something I know very little about and don't really put much stake in when it comes to the overall quality of a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted December 12, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Voice Acting OK. Every game I played this year had music (I think). Not every game had voice acting! This is going to be a much easier award to give out this year because, for once, I can simply eliminate most of the games from the list. Mwahaha. Let's do that right now. Only the green games will be eligible. Child of Light Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights UnderMine Carto The Last Campfire Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (Japanese only) Steam Tactics Typoman: Revised Going Under Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (made-up languages don't count) Little Nightmares II Team Sonic Racing (lol) Tales of Arise Hitman GO Planet Coaster Shady Part of Me SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Death's Door Songbird Symphony N.E.R.O. Figment (I mean, technically... it's sung, though?) Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Kaze and the Wild Masks Lost Words: Beyond the Page The Survivalists Wytchwood Superliminal Deponia Doomsday Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (I'm going to say no...) Days Gone Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (ehh... it's minimal) Rocketbirds 2: Evolution Maneater (there's an announcer, I guess...?) Cat Quest II Stray Fe Bubsy: Paws on Fire (why would I pawsibly include this?) Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA Kena: Bridge of Spirits Tails of Iron Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Japanese only) Coffee Talk The Wild at Heart Erica (live action is kinda cheating...) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Young Souls Cult of the Lamb Creaks Greak: Memories of Azur Outer Wilds Xenon Valkyrie+ Othercide (some of it is voice acted...) Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe CrossCode Chicory: A Colorful Tale Marsupilami: Hoobadventure Megaquarium Somebody is going to tell me I'm wrong about at least one of these games. But, purely from memory, those are the ones I remember that have at least a significant amount of voice acting. Some of them are only narrators, though, so I'm going to have to take that into account. In any case, 14 nominations is a lot easier than 60. I can actually rank these. The thing is, I kinda want to exclude Maneater and Othercide. They're not really voicing...characters in the game, but then I'd have to exclude Tails of Iron for the same reason. At what point does a narrator become an essential part of the game? You got Shady Part of Me and Lost Words, where the narrator IS the main character, and then you got Figment, where the only voice acting is lyrical. What am I supposed to do with that? SpongeBob and Demon Slayer use VAs predominantly from their respective show. Is that cheating? Is it any more cheating than Erica using REAL LIFE ACTORS? Eh, I guess it doesn't matter. Even if I included all of those and took everything into consideration, I already know what's winning the razzie here. Worst Voice Acting (2022) To be fair, guys, some of these VAs ALSO voice characters from Genshin. I think they did a good job. It's the...less important characters that bring the dialogue down. I suspect that's why a larger series like Atelier has stopped using English VAs. Some of you probably prefer to play games in Japanese and that's fine. I sometimes even do that with Genshin. But I don't speak Japanese (I'd like to learn!), so it's hard for me to judge those games. But when there's such a sharp contrast between the quality of the voices from the main characters and background NPCs, it really brings a game down in my opinion. What's bizarre is that one of the worst characters in the game is Milm, but the same VA voices Chelka, who is the best character in the game. (Genshin is like this too. The same VA voices both Barbara and Xinyan. One is a literal idol, who sounds great, and the other makes me want to take a hacksaw to my ears. Why does somebody have a "southern" accent in that game anyway?) I don't really have a sample to show you -- and I kinda hate public shaming anyway, since I'd feel terrible if I was asked to voice a character for a game and then some random person on the internet started insulting me -- but you can look up some gameplay for yourself if you want. There's just such a wide range being between tolerable and unacceptable voice acting in this game that I almost wish it didn't exist at all. I don't blame Atelier for taking the path they did. Now, GOOD voice acting is a totally different story. I don't blame complimenting people at all. I think VAs and artists get the absolute shaft when it comes to video game production. I thought about actually ranking these, but I think it would be better simply to eliminate the games one at a time. I don't know right now who is going to win. Obviously, the game that won worst VA isn't going to win best. So, we're down to 13. I am going to exclude Maneater and Othercide. The announcer in Maneater annoyed the shit out of me -- not to the level of The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 -- but that was probably intentional. The woman in Othercide was good, but she wasn't asked to do much. Kinda reminded me of Wayne June in Darkest Dungeon, who was just asked to say a bunch of random quips and sound cool in the process. Neat, but not best-of-the-year worthy. Don't make me laugh. Erica is not winning this. That brings us down to 10... So now I have to think what to do with SpongeBob and Demon Slayer. Well, between the two, Demon Slayer was WAY better. They may or may not have ripped lines directly from the show. But SpongeBob couldn't even bring in the right voice actor for Mermaid Man or Mr. Krabbs, which was extremely noticeable. So, we can at least take it down to nine. I don't remember the voices in Tales of Arise or Kena, so...I might have to do the same thing I did with the music category and simply exclude them both because of that. You might think that's unfair, but I still say there's some validity in making something memorable. Whether good or bad, I remember the voice acting in the other games on the list. That speaks volumes to me. We're down to seven games. Demon Slayer, Tails of Iron, Shady Part of Me, Days Gone, Deponia Doomsday, Lost Words, and Figment. I'm going to say no to Deponia. I do like Rufus, but being the fourth game in the series (and the worst in my opinion), I was tired of his schtick. He's not intended to be a likable character. That's a hard thing to do. I'm also going to say no to Figment, which might make you think I'm disrespecting the game again, but it's hard to separate out the music from the voice acting. I think sharing the award for best music of 2022 is enough. I'm also going to say no to Shady Part. I talked in my review about this, but I think that game would've been better off going the silent route. The story and graphics make you think they were going for something akin to American's McGee's Alice -- just a bit more whimsical, if you can believe that -- but the narrator's tone is completely off. Not bad, per se, if we look at it in a vacuum. But it's distracting when taken into context with the rest of the game and takes away from what is otherwise an enjoyable experience. That gets us down to four, which is a good number for nominations. So, the question is... Do I go with Demon Slayer, which clearly just followed the show? Do I go with Days Gone, which has been rightfully criticized by many people for its audio issues (among others -- although I don't think the audio problems were the fault of the VAs)? Do I go with Tails of Iron, solely because it was narrated by that guy from that game that has become a meme in this thread every winter? Or do I go with... Best Voice Acting (2022) Looking back, I think this is what Shady Part of Me was going for. It's a story about a girl trying to cope with some serious issues in her life. Unlike the girl in Shady Part, though, the girl in this game (Robyn or whatever named you picked) actually comes across as a sympathetic protagonist -- to the point that I felt real emotions while playing through the game. You guys know how uncommon that is, given how I ridicule most games for their story. There's some real power here, and it's made even more surprising by the fact that it's partially a choose-your-own-adventure kind of game. That has to make it harder to tell a cohesive story, but also to get the VA to cover multiple possible emotions in a single line of dialogue. A lot of RPGs give you the option of what the main character will say, but very few of them (if any) do it in mid-sentence. For example, you'll have a very somber moment, and the protagonist will say, "Robyn started to..." with your options being, "thrash", "scream!", or "cry." Now, I'm no voice actor, but I feel like that would be a fairly difficult thing to adjust for naturally. And yet, regardless of what option you pick, it never comes across as being awkward or out of place. That's definitely not something I see in a lot of BioWare or Bethesda games, for example. I'd also like to point out that it's not just serious moments. There's levity here too, and that just makes the emotional parts of the game all the more impactful. It reminds me very much of Blackwood Crossing, which probably would've won this award in 2018 if I had started a year earlier. The other nominations had good voice acting too -- even the ones I excluded for whatever stupid reason --- but this was phenomenal. I made it sound a lot closer than it was by pretending to carefully consider all of my choices. I already knew this was going to win. Edited December 12, 2022 by Cassylvania 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EcoShifter Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Prefacing: Upon entering the thread I thought this post would be purely game based. While I caught the voice acting focus in the beginning, I still took a look at the list out of curiosity. 1 hour ago, Cassylvania said: 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Voice Acting OK. Every game I played this year had music (I think). Not every game had voice acting! This is going to be a much easier award to give out this year because, for once, I can simply eliminate most of the games from the list. Mwahaha. Let's do that right now. Only the green games will be eligible. Child of Light Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights UnderMine Carto The Last Campfire Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (Japanese only) Steam Tactics Typoman: Revised Going Under Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (made-up languages don't count) Little Nightmares II Team Sonic Racing (lol) Tales of Arise Hitman GO Planet Coaster Shady Part of Me SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Death's Door Songbird Sympathy N.E.R.O. Figment (I mean, technically... it's sung, though?) Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Kaze and the Wild Masks Lost Words: Beyond the Page The Survivalists Wytchwood Superliminal Deponia Doomsday Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (I'm going to say no...) Days Gone Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (ehh... it's minimal) Rocketbirds 2: Evolution Maneater (there's an announcer, I guess...?) Cat Quest II Stray Fe Bubsy: Paws on Fire (why would I pawsibly include this?) Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA Kena: Bridge of Spirits Tails of Iron Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Japanese only) Coffee Talk The Wild at Heart Erica (live action is kinda cheating...) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Young Souls Cult of the Lamb Creaks Greak: Memories of Azur Outer Wilds Xenon Valkyrie+ Othercide (some of it is voice acted...) Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe CrossCode Chicory: A Colorful Tale Marsupilami: Hoobadventure Megaquarium Somebody is going to tell me I'm wrong about at least one of these games. But, purely from memory, those are the ones I remember that have at least a significant amount of voice acting. Some of them are only narrators, though, so I'm going to have to take that into account. The games in red have voice-acting, TSR having a significant amount of it too (be it the career mode or gameplay), likely the most in its genre. There's even exposition in career mode. (Also incredible attention to detail in gameplay...) Spoiler Note: All other voice settings were intentionally turned down (and the lines below are of course more enjoyable in-game). Far from everything; there are also voice-lines for collisions, being airborne, character-to-character specific, and more. The latter [NASB] it'd make sense that you remember having no voices if you played it anytime before June 6th, the date voiceover was added via a patch. Just voicing what I know. ? Quote In any case, 14 nominations is a lot easier than 60. I can actually rank these. The thing is, I kinda want to exclude Maneater and Othercide. They're not really voicing...characters in the game, but then I'd have to exclude Tails of Iron for the same reason. At what point does a narrator become an essential part of the game? You got Shady Part of Me and Lost Words, where the narrator IS the main character, and then you got Figment, where the only voice acting is lyrical. What am I supposed to do with that? SpongeBob and Demon Slayer use VAs predominantly from their respective show. Is that cheating? Nah, it's fine, since it's not purely ripped from their shows. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 1 hour ago, EcoShifter said: The games in red have voice-acting, TSR having a significant amount of it too (be it the career mode or gameplay), likely the most in its genre. There's even exposition in career mode. (Also incredible attention to detail in gameplay...) Yeah, I was debating if "quips" count as voice acting. If I did, I'd probably have to include Bubsy too. I forgot that TSR had a story. Superliminal had a narrator and Planet Coaster had several, so I probably should've included them too. I played NASB after the patch, but I remember no voice acting being one of the major compliments I heard about the game. Honestly can't remember if I heard it or not. Eh, it's hard to remember 60 games at once. Next year, I'm only playing four games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 This is fun so far Cassy - Lost Words did have some really good voice work for sure! (I was thinking also, as I read this, and noticed your trophy card at the bottom ... I bet Last Stop is glad it didn't get finished in time for this award.... because I bet it would have been a contender for one of these categories... and not the "best" one ?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) On 12/12/2022 at 3:02 AM, DrBloodmoney said: This is fun so far Cassy - Lost Words did have some really good voice work for sure! (I was thinking also, as I read this, and noticed your trophy card at the bottom ... I bet Last Stop is glad it didn't get finished in time for this award.... because I bet it would have been a contender for one of these categories... and not the "best" one ?) That was a desperation play on my part. I was never so unmotivated to start a new game than I was yesterday. But I gotta keep the streak going for a bit longer... The good news is I'll still get to roast the game in my obviously soon-to-come review. Maybe someday we'll put all the December games in an awards ceremony. Alright, where were we...? 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Graphics No slip-ups this time. I'm going to go through every game on the list -- one at a time -- and post my thoughts on the graphics. As with the last two categories, I still want to rely on my memory, so I'm going to try to do this without Googling screenshots of the game. Only if I need a quick refresher. Child of Light (*quick Google search*... Just kidding. This was my second time playing through the game. Love the watercolor effect. Played through a lot of "storybook" games this year and this was one of the better-looking ones. Very surreal.) Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (Yeah, they were pretty good. Liked the dark color scheme. Character models were nice. Environments were fantastic. This was back when 2022 was all about "good games only.") UnderMine (Served its purpose, but nothing mind-blowing. Also, not sure this game belongs on the 2022 list... I played most of it last year.) Carto (OK, this was cute. Loved the simplistic style. All the characters were adorable.) The Last Campfire (Same as the above. Not sure which one I prefer.) Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (You guys mock me for this series, but they make visually-appealing games!) Steam Tactics (LOL No.) Typoman: Revised (Eh… It was unique. Good integration of letters into the overworld -- and character models -- but I have a hard time getting into post-apocalyptic or factory settings. See my The Surge review.) Going Under (SOME people probably love this fever dream, but it made me nauseous. Eventually got used to it and think it's kinda neat in retrospect.) Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (…Not really. I understand it’s a PS3 game and the main appeal is the characters and the story, but it’s rough around the edges graphically.) Little Nightmares II (This was cool. Stuff of nightmares. Lighting was great.) Team Sonic Racing (It wasn’t…terrible. I wish it was. I’d love to roast this game. But the graphics, much like the rest of the game, were surprisingly passable.) Tales of Arise (Most of you probably skipped right to this one. It was OK. I haven't played the other Tales games, so I don't know how this measures up. The thing I remember the most is that chick's eyes being unnaturally bright. Lots of particle effects.) Hitman GO (I actually hated these graphics. Part of it comes from the way I played, though...which was on a smaller TV, on my PS4, while I was doing other things, and having to listen to my jet engine of a system churn along. It really made me have no desire to play the mainline games in the series, which is fine. I have enough on my plate.) Planet Coaster (This award sadly isn't going to a simulator. They weren't bad, though... Just not memorable.) Shady Part of Me (This was interesting. The game was held back by some issues, but not graphics. I liked the use of shadows a lot. It's kinda the point of the game.) SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (It looked good.. Vibrant, colorful, and fit the show. For someone who played the original, they probably really liked the remaster. I didn't play the original, and I thought the remaster was an average experience. I feel the same about the graphics.) Death's Door (This was pretty sweet... It's hard to make a game that's both dark and colorful at the same time. Maybe a bit too bland, but easy on the eyes, which is the main thing I'm looking for. I don't want to go blind.) Songbird Sympathy (Did I seriously spell this Sympathy? Wow, I'm an idiot. We're just going to go back and fix that in the other posts... Anyway, VERY much fits the theme of the game. Loved the colors and the character models. Birb is just so damn cute.) N.E.R.O. (Hot take here, but I thought the graphics looked like neon vomit. The jellyfish was cool, though.) Figment (Really unique art style. The environments are just so weird and whimsical. I don't know if you guys play Wordle or the much cooler GuessTheGame -- where you have to enter the name of the game in six or less screenshots -- but I feel this is one I could probably get on my first or second guess, regardless of what section of the game they were taken from.) Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (Actually...I have mixed opinions about this one. Not in love with some of the character redesigns. World was bland. Textures were not appealing. Didn’t look like a remaster or a modern game. What I wouldn’t give for another farming game on the level of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, which won this award previously.) Kaze and the Wild Masks (This one is a bit limited. There's something...flat about the environments. They're almost plastic-y. I'm just going to admit right now that I've Googled more than half of these games so far, but I distinctly remember being underwhelmed by most stages in this game. They just don't POP like they do in DKC2. Lost Words: Beyond the Page (Another storybook game. I think this game did a better job than N.E.R.O. and even Typoman in integrating words into the game world. Graphically, I don't think it was anything special, but the journal entries were fantastic.) The Survivalists (Not...very...good. This was actually the reason I put the game off for as long as I did. It looks like a bargain bin game. The textures and color palette is just not appealing. What is it about survival games that makes developers think that graphics don't matter?) Wytchwood (The third storybook game! This had SO much clutter on the screen. Colors were great. World was pretty neat to explore. I liked the goat.) Superliminal (...Hm. How do you even judge this one from a graphical standpoint? The environments were designed to be manipulated. I guess we have to take that into account.) Deponia Doomsday (It's...Deponia. Just more of the same. I've always been partial to hand-drawn styles.) Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Actually...not bad. This would be a hard one to make. You're putting characters from different shows with drastically different art styles into the same game. Smash did the same thing, but at least those characters were from video games. The stages all looked like they belonged in their respective shows. I particularly liked the cereal one.) Days Gone (The graphics were fine. Still not sure how the developers were able to get the zombie horde thing to work. This game should've lagged and glitched a lot more than it did.) Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (I liked the cutscenes, but the rest of the game was a bit of an eyesore.) Rocketbirds 2: Evolution (A downgrade, in my opinion. More like De-evolution, am I right?) Maneater (Cheap. Ugly. Vomit-inducing. These are just a few of the words that describe this game.) Cat Quest II (Does this count as a storybook game? Friggin' cute, regardless. I love how the map screen IS the world. That's still such an amazing concept to me.) Stray (MEOW. Meow meow meow! Me-OOOOOOOOOW.) Fe (Graphics might be the only thing this game has going for it... Unfortunately for this game, they reminded me of N.E.R.O., which is not the comparison you immediately want me to make.) Bubsy: Paws on Fire (Cheap. Ugly. Vomit-inducing. These are just a...wait, deja vu.) Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (... Sorry, guys... Much like Tales of Arise, this doesn't appeal to me. It looks like it belongs on a PS3...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but how am I supposed to compliment this game when I'm looking directly at the next game on this list?) Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Fuck shit balls. This game was gorgeous. I didn't even know this could be achieved on a modern console. Do we even need to continue?) Tails of Iron (Annnd this is the reason I hate giving out this award. This game was every bit as good as Kena, but it had a very different art style and rightfully so. It was meant to be a more realistic depiction of rats, frogs, disease, and war. Gross at times, but not unappealing.) Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Atelier games never let me down.) Coffee Talk (I'm getting exhausted... Can we stop now? I liked the pixel graphics. Characters looked good too. Liked the environment, even though I don't think I've ever been in a coffee shop.) The Wild at Heart (Yet another storybook game... I've lost track now. Is that six or seven? Anyway, obvious similarities to Where the Wilds Things Are, so I loved it.) Erica (REAL LIFE GRAPHICS DON'T COUNT, ERICA. Stop trying to cheat.) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles (Surprisingly good. LOVED the attack animations. Character models too. Not sure why part of the game was "open world", but this game was at its best when you were fighting. Cutscenes were a nice touch.) Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (Loved it. Retro will never go out of style.) Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory (Pretty sure they just copied the graphics from the first game... I'm not even counting this.) The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 (Pretty sure they just copied the graphics from...damn, there's deja vu again. Anyway, disgusting color palette and weird character models.) Young Souls (Really cool style here. I love the character designs, the comic book feel, and the purplish-pink color scheme. Without knowing anything about the production of this game, I'm going to assume there was only one person -- maybe two -- behind the art direction.) Cult of the Lamb (I was a little worried going into this game that we'd see cute animals getting dismembered and disfigured, but it was done in a tasteful way and I was overjoyed to see that. One of the easiest games on the eyes this year, by far.) Creaks (Much like the music, the graphics were just so appropriate in this game. And much like Cult of the Lamb, a pleasant surprise because I wasn't expecting such a...happy? upbeat?...kind of game. I love seeing whimsical being done in unique ways.) Greak: Memories of Azur (Gorgeous game. Will always appreciate hand-drawn styles. I'm running out of things to say. How do people review games for a living anyway?) Outer Wilds (It... OK, it looks nice. At first, the field of view kinda made me nauseous, but there are so many cool things to see in this game. Can't really say more without spoiling the game, but I'm pretty sure I already did in my review.) Xenon Valkyrie+ (It's...uh, yeah. I barely even played this game, guys. I probably spent more time downloading it.) Othercide (Color scheme was great. Misleading character models! The daughters do not look anywhere near as cool (or textured) in the actual game. Also, lots of repeated environments and character models.) Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe (Not bad. Lots of references to other video games and the internet show.) CrossCode (Reminds me of something from the SNES...arguably my favorite console. Environments were good. Models were even better.) Chicory: A Colorful Tale ("Colorful" is right... Yeah, not sure how I feel about the graphics on this one. From a performance standpoint, it was impressive. How does the game remember your color choices even when you leave the map screen? There have to be billions of possible variations. I guess it helps that the rest of the graphics are purposely bare bones. I mean, after all... It is a coloring book. I liked being able to write on the background and color in the NPCs. Probably the most unique game this year when it comes to this category.) Marsupilami: Hoobadventure (ACTUALLY... graphics were decent. They didn't have to go that hard on the game. Not like anybody is rushing to buy it. Cutscenes were a little janky, though... Good thing there were only two in the entire game.) Megaquarium (This game isn't winning any awards. The graphics were there because the game would have a hard time existing without them. Performance issues once your aquarium reaches a certain size... A bit of a problem in this game because the later stages require a large aquarium.) Whew! That was...something. The good news is I won't have to waste any time now explaining why I picked the winners. Worst Graphics (2022) Bubsy is the punchline in a lot of jokes, but he deserves it. Nobody asked for this game. Much like Rocketbirds 2, they tried to up the graphics and improve the lighting from the original...but when you shine light on garbage, it only makes you realize how bad it looks. And Bubsy was never that appealing. In fairness, though, this still wasn't that bad of a game. I wish it was because I'd have a lot more to say. If you Google images of this game, you might even be surprised by how not terrible they are. There are actually some stages where if you squint hard enough, it's almost like you're playing a good game. You just have to keep that bobcat in your peripheral vision. Best Graphics (2022) I passed up a lot of really good games here, but the winner was never in doubt. Kena is just...what I've always wanted. I wanted a game that combined Dark Souls graphics/combat with Disney characters/world design. I wanted to fight Anna in battle and then have Elsa show up and shove a giant icicle spear through my heart. And while I didn't get exactly that, this was pretty damn close. I know a lot of people were blown away by stuff like Uncharted 4 and God of War (2018), but this was the first time I ever felt I was playing a movie. The real question is... what would be the runner-up? Edited December 14, 2022 by Cassylvania 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gruffiiti Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) On 2022-12-09 at 10:35 AM, Cassylvania said: Platinum #351 - Megaquarium EaCh FiSh In ThE oCeAn SwImS iN iTs OwN dIrEcTiOn. *snip* You build up all that hype and then it's over. I mean, how would you feel if I was just about to give my overall thoughts on a game and I see what you did there. EDIT: Dammit.. should have read further before posting. @Rally-Vincent--- already mentioned it and with the 4th ABGPTYBNNRTYA (2022) in full swing I feel Im commenting on something ancient. Feel free to skip over this and get back to the awards. Edited December 12, 2022 by gruffiiti 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EcoShifter Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 9 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Yeah, I was debating if "quips" count as voice acting. If I did, I'd probably have to include Bubsy too. I forgot that TSR had a story. Superliminal had a narrator and Planet Coaster had several, so I probably should've included them too. I played NASB after the patch, but I remember no voice acting being one of the major compliments I heard about the game. Honestly can't remember if I heard it or not. Eh, it's hard to remember 60 games at once. Next year, I'm only playing four games. I wouldn't count things like grunts, but fully voiced sentences, especially when there's a large supply of it? Yeah. Bubsy's fully animated cutscenes also have proper voice acting though. I'm not familiar enough with Sl's and PC's voice systems. The lack of voices in NASB was indeed one of the top complaints (like with the Nickelodeon kart racers), but it became obsolete when it was patched in on June 6th. I forgot to mention that includes Arcade Mode having become fully voiced. Still not on the caliber of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale there, but it's also not completely silent like a Super Smash Bros. Interested to see what wins and loses in the music and gameplay categories. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serrated-banner9 Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 1 minute ago, EcoShifter said: I wouldn't count things like grunts, but fully voiced sentences, especially when there's a large supply of it? Yeah. Bubsy's fully animated cutscenes also have proper voice acting though. I'm not familiar enough with Sl's and PC's voice systems. The lack of voices in NASB was indeed one of the top complaints (like with the Nickelodeon kart racers), but it became obsolete when it was patched in on June 6th. I forgot to mention that includes Arcade Mode having become fully voiced. Still not on the caliber of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale there, but it's also not completely silent like a Super Smash Bros. Interested to see what wins and loses in the music and gameplay categories. music has been done already, it was the first award given out this year On 12/11/2022 at 3:53 PM, Cassylvania said: (It was. I was referencing the game ending too abruptly.) The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Music Before we begin the awards, I'd like to introduce you to my lovely assistant this year. Lea from CrossCode, would you please say hello and tell us a little about yourself? LEA: Hi! ... Music to my ears. Speaking of music, I nearly went deaf listening to some of these soundtracks. If some of you ever wonder why I prefer to play most of my games with Spotify on, it's because of stuff like this. Worst Music (2022) One of the reasons I usually exclude December games from these awards is because there's an inherent bias towards games I played recently. The thing is, this shit was so bad that it got me to actually have an awards ceremony this year. I was perfectly content to forego this whole thing and just crown Genshin the champion of 2022. Granted, I don't expect much from a sim. They usually use stock music. The problem is there are only a handful of songs, they are very short, and they are WAY too obnoxious and upbeat to be on loop. I didn't compare this game enough to Two Point Hospital in my review, but I remember that game struggling with the same issue. Almost every song was a three minute jingle that would start to grind on your ears after a while. But TPH had something like FORTY songs that it would cycle through, and it had that chill "On Call" song that I loved and eventually made my default track. Megaquarium had like...three songs. I'm not even kidding. How bad is it? Listen for yourself. Are those dogs barking? Monkeys chirping? What is going on? LEA: [covers ears] Why!? I'm not saying it's a bad track. (I guess I kinda am since that's the category.) It's catchy. I want to jam to it. But it's main menu music at best, NOT the kind of track you subject the player to during regular gameplay. How is anybody supposed to concentrate with all that nonsense going on in the background? I'm anxious just listening to it. Make it stop. (Marsupilami was a close runner-up here. Again, not to harp on the most recent games, but those songs -- particularly the one used in EVERY BONUS STAGE IN THE GAME -- got old fast. It's some Spanish-themed thing, which doesn't even make sense in context of the rest of the game.) Now, for BEST music, we have several good options here. I'm not always going to nominate games. Sometimes I know what's going to win an award before I even start writing. But for best music, I really need to go through the entire list and see what jumps out at me. Currently, there are four games that I think could make a run here. Chronologically, they are: Songbird Symphony, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, Creaks, and Othercide. Probably not the four you were thinking of. In fact, there's a very good chance you think I'm on drugs. But one thing you have to remember, guys, is that (1) I play a lot of games either on mute or with my own music playing in the background, and (2) I can't remember the soundtrack of most of these games without having to replay them, which would take a whole other year. I guess that's two things. If I COULD remember every game I played, there's a good chance Bloodstained 2 or Kaze would be in the running, as I know those were both based upon absolute bangers from the SNES days. But since I can't remember, I have to give the nod to the games whose soundtracks still live in my head. Songbird Symphony is a rhythm-based game. Of course it would have a memorable soundtrack. Rocketbirds has a soundtrack (with vocals!) that I'm pretty sure was made exclusively for the game. That's pretty cool and unique. Creaks... I mean, if there was an award for the most surprisingly good soundtrack, it would win that. I wasn't expecting something so awesome. I particularly loved how the music would change when you reached certain stages in the puzzles. It's like the game was rewarding you for solving something. And Othercide had absolutely no right to have a main menu screen with such fuckin' awesome music. If only the rest of the game was like that... But I'm getting ahead of myself. Best Music (2022) I sold myself on that one. Probably would've given it to Rocketbirds if I hadn't played the game back in 2013 and bought the soundtrack, but I loved the incorporation of music into this game. It's so quirky and vibrant and spooky, all at the same time. I don't even know what some of those instruments are. As I always say, music is a bit like sorcery to me, so I can't explain why I like something... I just know when I do. Creaks is an OK puzzle game with no dialogue and a very basic story, but the music absolutely brings it to life. I can probably recommend the game on that alone. EDIT: Figment had a really good soundtrack too. I probably posted this too soon, but I think Creaks would still beat it out. EDIT 2: Barely. EDIT 3: Fuck it. They're tied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, gruffiiti said: EDIT: Dammit.. should have read further before posting. @Rally-Vincent--- already mentioned it and with the 4th ABGPTYBNNRTYA (2022) in full swing I feel Im commenting on something ancient. Feel free to skip over this and get back to the awards. Thanks for spelling out the acronym. I was always curious what that would look like, but was too lazy to do it myself. As you can probably tell, I'm not really spacing out these posts like I had planned. The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Story Man, if you thought I struggled with audio and visual -- two things I know very little about from a technical standpoint -- imagine how I'm going to fare with a topic I'm actually passionate about. This could end terribly. Alright, story. The award I've been dreading. As with the others, it's kinda hard to compare all these games because...again, how do I compare the story of a simple platformer to that of a world-spanning RPG? I almost feel like I should be breaking these down by genre or something. But then I run into the same problem I have with the OP, which is: "Where do some of these games even fit?" Is Lost Words a platformer? Do I put it on the same level as Bubsy and Typoman? Hitman GO and Superliminal are both puzzle games, I guess, but only one has an actual story. And are we talking about the story within the game OR how the game presents its story? Those are two very different things. Figment, for example, has a very simple story, but its execution is what makes it special. How do I judge that, or compare it to something like Days Gone or Tales of Arise, that have dozens of characters and side quests? I could take the cheap way out and just give the Worst Story award to a game that doesn't have a story or only has the bare minimum of what would constitute one (e.g. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Kaze, Marsupilami). I could also give it to a sim, where you're mostly just making up your own story (e.g. Planet Coaster, Megaquarium, The Survivalists). Or I could give it to a game that makes a pathetic attempt at telling a story but nobody cares because that time should've been spent making a better game (e.g. Bubsy, Steam Tactics). Or I could just give it to Maneater, since I know I wouldn't be at risk of offending anybody, but I honestly enjoyed how dumb that story was. Chalk that up to me liking bad movies. But I think it's important we judge a story that actually exists. It's not enough to just have "characters" or a "plot". I want to feel the writers put actual effort into creating a narrative that they thought somebody would enjoy. That means I want something that has lore, emotion, side quests, and purpose. But it's not fair for me to just spit out what I think some bad stories would be, because I need to first eliminate the games that I don't think are eligible. So, here's how we're going to do it. I'm going to go through each game on the list and either make it green, or make it red. If I cross it out, it means I don't consider that game to have a narrative worth discussing. If I make it green, it means I liked it and will consider it for Best Story. If I make it red, it means I didn't like it and it's eligible for Worst Story. If I don't do anything...well, it means there's a story there, but I don't have any feelings either way about it. I'm going to try to limit my nominations to no more than ten games each. Child of Light Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights UnderMine Carto The Last Campfire Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy Steam Tactics (pretend this is red... it looks brown on my screen) Typoman: Revised Going Under Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Little Nightmares II Team Sonic Racing Tales of Arise Hitman GO Planet Coaster Shady Part of Me SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Death's Door Songbird Symphony N.E.R.O. Figment Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Kaze and the Wild Masks Lost Words: Beyond the Page The Survivalists (that said, the ending was still hilarious) Wytchwood Superliminal Deponia Doomsday Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Days Gone Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Rocketbirds 2: Evolution Maneater (I didn't like it THAT much) Cat Quest II Stray Fe Bubsy: Paws on Fire Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA Kena: Bridge of Spirits Tails of Iron Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream Coffee Talk The Wild at Heart Erica Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Young Souls Cult of the Lamb Creaks Greak: Memories of Azur Outer Wilds Xenon Valkyrie+ Othercide Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe CrossCode Chicory: A Colorful Tale Marsupilami: Hoobadventure Megaquarium Huh, I thought I would've crossed off a lot more than eight games... Anyway, before we get to the awards, you probably have some questions. I know some of you are looking at the games I didn't highlight and were like, "What!?" Many of you liked the story in Outer Wilds, Brothers, Coffee Talk, and Tales of Arise/Ys VII. I know. That's why I tried to limit myself to ten games. I even had to exclude Tails of Iron, which for all intents and purposes had a great story (and great storytelling method). Think of this as just a top 10 list for me. Now, what it comes to the shitty stories... I mean, let's just go through the list. Steam Tactics was laughably bad. What were they trying to do -- copy Star Fox, without any of the charm? Sonic Racing... OK, I'll give them credit for putting a story in a racing game. That was unexpected. My problem was the story essentially boiled down to, "Huh, something isn't right... Let's keep racing until we figure it out!" N.E.R.O....well, the acronym stands for "Nothing Ever Remains Obscure", but that's not true. The plot did. Deponia has been going downhill since the second game. And while I admit I liked parts of Maneater's ridiculous story, I'm not going to lie and pretend it was good. Bubsy... 'nuff said. Do we just give him the award now? Erica was bad. So bad. I played through the game six games and didn't get one good story out of it. That's not a very good return on investment. Digimon had you playing as a literal NPC from a much better game. How did anyone think that was a good idea? The Witch and the I Really Hate Typing This Title Out Every Time 2 is yet another failed sequel from a game that didn't need one. Really hated the characters, but at least the plot was...a thing that kept me interested. Even if it was just to see what bizarre shit they'd put in the game next. Othercide...I don't even know if it had a plot. If it did, it was bad. But it made an attempt at telling some kind of story, so I'm putting it on the list. Worst Story (2022) Now that's just false advertisement. There's nothing "thrilling" or "interactive" about this game. You don't even use the directional pad, joysticks, OR buttons. You use the touchpad -- or, even worse, your phone. I should've learned from Hidden Agenda. "But Cass, you're not judging the game on its controls!" Six playthroughs, guys. Almost seven for me. They all play out more or less the same and none of them are interesting. Erica always looks like a deer in the headlights and she has the personality of one after you hit it with your car. All the characters in this "movie" (let's call it what it really is) are insufferable. For your first playthrough, you might be like, "Oh, I bet this guy is bad!" or "Oh man, I didn't see that coming!" Well... no, you won't say the second thing. That's because there's nothing really surprising here. But this game might make you think it could become a good story, which is just an absolute kick in the balls when it doesn't happen. Then it kicks you again. And again. And again. And again. And just when you think it's done, Erica has one more in store for your nuts. Just give me the bobcat any day. At least his games only require one playthrough per decade. Best Story (2022) I thought about getting cute here. There's a good argument for all the games I highlighted in green (and many I didn't). Creaks told a good story without any dialogue. So did Little Nightmares 2 -- and that's a game that deserved a sequel (although I guess it's a prequel). CrossCode had a main who could barely speak at all. The cat in Stray could only meow. Going Under is an Evanescence song. The point is: good stories do NOT have to have dialogue. I very much considered making this the lesson to be learned from this year. But... There's power in language too. You get a game like Figment, where words are used to great effect. I think one of the most memorable boss fights in video game history was the Great Mighty Poo from Conker's Bad Fur Day. If you don't know what I'm talking about...well, you fight a literal pile of shit. By itself, this would be hilarious, but it's the fact that he's singing opera at you that makes it distinct. Good games find a way to stand out. I wish more games would embrace this idea that boss fights can be more than a mere engagement with an enemy. Give me more bosses like the ones in Figment, who start singing about how they're going to murder me. Give me a reason to hate the thing I'm fighting or to question the choices I made up until that point. I've talked before about Maiden Astraea in Demon's Souls and the actual emotions I felt when she chastised me for becoming a demon. There's almost a fourth wall that was broken there, where I realized that I was so obsessed with the game I was playing, so determined to see it through to the end, that I didn't notice the physical toll it had taken on me. Spec Ops: The Line did this too. When a game becomes more than a mindless button-masher, it garners my respect. That's a top tier game, in my opinion. So, I could sit here and say I enjoyed the story in Days Gone and Kena and Demon Slayer, and I did. I have a soft spot for Sophie 2 too. But there are only three games this year that really engaged me. The first was Figment, for the reasons I've already stated. It was more a humorous take on a not-so-funny situation. The second was a few sections very late into CrossCode. Probably didn't need so much filler in between. And the third was basically the entirety of Lost Words, which is why I'm giving it the top spot. And this is a game that graphically...yeah, is kinda bland. I mean, there are certainly other games this year that did a fantasy world better. But when it comes to actual storytelling... I mean, this is what I expect from a game that's entirely narrative-based. I talked about the voice acting, which does help to sell it, but it's the story it tells -- and, perhaps more importantly, the way it tells that story -- that drew me in. It doesn't try to be one thing, like Erica did. It's not sappy or up its own ass all the time, like Life is Strange or Gone Home (which, by the way, I liked -- just for different reasons). Lost Words knows when to be funny and when to be serious. It's a roller coaster, and that's the kind of ride you go to an amusement park for and the one you remember when you pack it in for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Oh, wait. This game was written by Terry Pratchett's daughter. Well, that's just fuckin' cheating. Edited December 13, 2022 by Cassylvania 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted December 15, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 15, 2022 The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Worst Characters Yeah, you read that right. It's pluralized. There's no way I'm going to be able to narrow this category down to a single character (not with 60 games to sort through), so we're going to pick the three worst ones. This isn't necessarily going to be a ranking -- just three characters I absolutely can't stand. Now, before we begin, you probably have your suspicions regarding one or two characters who might make the list. I'm going to tell you right now that Bubsy is NOT one of them. Why? Because as annoying as he is in every other game, they actually toned him down in Paws on Fire, which was the only Bubsy game I played this year. From what I remember, he only talks in the intro cutscene (where he's annoying but makes a halfway decent joke regarding his nephew and niece), in the ending cutscene (where he's annoying), and when he dies (where he's annoying, but how's that for incentive to stay alive?). Somehow, I found him more tolerable this time around. So, while Bubsy WOULD be one of the worst characters of all time, this particular version of Bubsy is not making the list. I can't say the same for the other character you might be thinking of. Worst Character #1: Erica from Erica Erica's entire range of facial expressions (minus the middle one). I want to preface this by saying I have nothing against the actress or any of the actors in this game. I'm sure they're all wonderful people. In fact, they were the only part of this "game" that was bearable. FMV is just simply a medium that does not work very well for a video game, in my opinion. When I watch a bad movie (which is what this game actually is), I usually blame the writers or the director. It's not always clear who is at fault, but I find it's rarely the actors. A lot of bad movies have big name actors and it's obvious that's where the majority of the budget went. Since I had to do six playthroughs, I had plenty of time to look up these actors on iMDb and it seems they've all been in bigger -- and presumably better -- things, so the fault likely lies elsewhere. I'm going to blame the medium. So, why Erica? Well, truthfully, I could've picked any character from this game. I hated them all equally. I would say Tobi is probably the most interesting one because she's sarcastic and short-tempered, which are two more personalities than Erica has. The only background we get on her character is that her creepy ass father was killed in front of her, and then she's suddenly a fully-grown slightly older adult individual. I'm not sure that's enough to make me care about what happens to her, which is not a good start to your horror film. (That's not to say someone needs to be likable for me to care. Nobody in Until Dawn made it on my list of characters-I-hope-are-alive-by-the-end-of-the-game, but that was sorta the point. What's the point of this game?) I think I said in my review that one playthrough is probably sufficient and maybe even worth a play. I'm also someone who watches bad movies religiously. The problem with this movie is that none of the playthroughs are particularly enjoyable, because there's very little to make fun of. The only reason the first playthrough has the potential to be somewhat decent is because there's still that potential for something interesting or exciting or scary to happen. But once you see there's very little difference in the choices you make...well, if you're anything like me, you're going to be amazed they couldn't tell a more cohesive story. So, not only do the writers not give us a reason to care about Erica and completely drop the ball when it comes to an engaging narrative, but the developers put the actors in these awkward situations where they have to stare uncomfortably at the screen until you make your selection. This happens every few seconds in the game, so it's very jarring. If you're anything like me, you're going to get some sick enjoyment out of seeing them suffer, so you'll wait until the last possible moment to make your choice. And wow, it's like the developers KNEW the controls were bad, because they sometimes give you upwards of ten seconds before either selecting an answer for you or accepting no response/hesitation as your answer. If you haven't played this game (or a game like this), you might not understand what I'm talking about, so I'll try to give you an example. Let's say Erica goes out to eat to breakfast. The waiter comes up to her and asks, "What can I get you?" Now, in real life, you would probably have an answer. (Unless you have a stuttering problem like me -- in which case, I'll just randomly sputter out the first word that my mouth will allow me. This is why I can never eat fish.) In real life, you wouldn't freeze frame on the waiter's face for several seconds. If you did, you'd both start to feel really uncomfortable. I know because, as a stutterer, it's very, very awkward when there's silence where there shouldn't be. For some reason, in video games, this is usually disregarded. You can't think about it when you're given a dialogue box in most games. It's only when it's a REAL LIVE PERSON looking at you that the immersion is shattered. And for someone like me, who already has to live through this on a daily basis, it's not something I particularly want in my video game. Next, we're going to have to give a nod to one of the characters from The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2. That whole cast made me want to tear my hair out. You see, a lot of games on the list are simply saved from this "award" because I either didn't pay attention to the story or I gave up halfway through the game. It's not fair for me to call a character bad if that's the case. TWatHK2, however, was a game I did pay attention to -- for better or worse -- and I feel fully justified in saying that almost everybody was insufferable. Well, not everybody. The Hundred Knight remains a good character. Maybe it's because he doesn't speak. (That seems to be the trend with games this year.) I'm also going to say Chelka was very good. She's the Al Pacino of that game, always chewing up scenery. I think the game would've been much better if we had her as the protagonist instead of Amalie. (But if that happened, we'd essentially just have Metallia again.) Amalie...wasn't bad, I guess. She actually has one of the best English VAs in the game. Her biggest issue is her personality. She's self-righteous, which is already a trait that gets on my nerves, but they followed it up by making her extremely useless. Any time there's a battle, she gets her ass kicked almost immediately. This would be great if she was a side character or someone we could laugh at, but you play as the Hundred Knight, which means you're forced to come to her aid every time. The gay crow is pretty great. I'm not going to lie. All the Holy Valkyries are awful -- particularly Sophie. I kinda liked the dominatrix flower lady. TWatHK2 is at its best when it embraces its weirdness. But if you remember my review, you already know who I'm giving the next award to. Worst Character #2: Milm from The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Amalie's face is my reaction too. Yeah, so, Milm is the driving force for the game. She's Amalie's little sister, who has contracted the witch's disease, and Amalie must find a way to cure her. That's why she teams up with the Holy Valkyries. As someone who has siblings, I like this idea and think it can be done right. Hey, it HAS been done right in several other games on this list (e.g. Brothers, Child of Light, etc.). The problem is the game never even tries to explore their relationship, outside of the fact that they like to...bathe together... We're just supposed to accept that they care deeply for each other. Well, I have a hard time doing that when SIBLINGS DON'T ACT THAT WAY. Siblings fight. They bicker. They punch and kick and scream and yell. They may occasionally work together towards a common goal, but they're not going to make googly eyes at each other and daydream about their next bath time. (You know a game that did sibling relationships really well? A Plague Tale: Innocence. Remind me to play the sequel next year.) But it goes beyond that. Milm's voice is ANNOYING. So is her signature line: "Sissy." No, she's not saying it as an insult. That'd be too clever for this game. That's her nickname for Amalie, and she says it constantly, at the end of every line, like she's some sort of Animal Crossing character. Now, what makes Milm worse...this is dipping into spoiler territory, but not really because it's revealed very early in the game...is that she and Chelka share a body. Chelka is essentially the "witch" inside her. For whatever reason, Milm still has some control over their body, so they're constantly swapping places throughout the game. This is the only reason I hesitated to give this award to Milm, because Chelka is awesome (and voiced by the same actress, who also voices Keqing in Genshin, so it's not like I'm blaming the VA again). It is entirely the writers' fault that Milm is such a bad character. And knowing that CHELKA could be on screen when MILM is there just makes it worse. It's like the game is shooting itself in the foot. I think Milm is going to be my go-to example for how not to write a character from now on. So, that's two. I don't think either one should be a surprise. I was originally going to put Bubsy on this list, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I actually don't know right now who the third one will be, so you'll get to join me in figuring it out in real time. Yes, I could just wait until I have my answer and then write a cohesive summary, but that's not how I do these posts. I ramble and you read. That's how this goes. So, let's see... I mean, the characters in Child of Light rhymed when they talked. I could see that be annoying for some people. There were some pretty annoying characters in Steam Tactics. I'm way too lazy to look up their names, though. Guess that makes them forgettable. Not really the sign of a truly awful character. No, everybody in Ryza 2 was fine. Sophie 2 too for that matter! I don't dare put anybody from Tales of Arise or YS VIII on this list. That girl in Shady Part was really annoying... Story of Seasons? Man, everybody was just so friendly in that game. I can't hate friendly people. Wait, there's Days Gone. Oh, hmm. Yeah... yeah, I could see someone on there making the list. ...Can Milm be on the list twice? Oh, I know! Worst Character #3: Rufus from Deponia Doomsday This guy's an asshole. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 On 12/11/2022 at 9:53 AM, Cassylvania said: Almost every song was a three minute jingle that would start to grind on your ears after a while. At least it wasn't a five second jungle that loops constantly. Thankfully, when they found out that the Elite 4 music was looping early, they patched it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 21, 2022 Author Share Posted December 21, 2022 (edited) The 4th Annual Best Games Played This Year But Not Necessarily Released This Year Awards (2022) Best Characters LEA: Hi! Oh, hi, Lea. I forgot you were around. What an oddly-placed time for your return. Would you like to join me for this award? LEA: [nods] Great! We're getting close to the holidays, so I think it's time we try to inject some rare positivity into this thread. I can't think of a better way than looking back at some of the more enjoyable characters we've interacted with over the past year. Like before, we'll be picking the top three in this category, in no particular order. Best Character #1: Boozer from Days Gone A fuckin' god. I'm going to try to keep this free from spoilers. Days Gone has you taking on the role of Deacon St. John, who is given the choice early on of fleeing the city with his wife Sarah or staying behind to protect his brother, Boozer, from the zombie apocalypse. My man doesn't even hesitate. I was immediately reminded me of Michael and Lincoln Burrows from the sorely underrated show Prison Break, and the rest of the game only confirms the similarities. Deacon, like Mikey, is a resourceful character. He gets by using his wits, which is something you'd probably need in a zombie outbreak. (It's only a coincidence that Michael also has a wife named Sarah.) Boozer, on the other hand, is the brawn. He's a behemoth of a man who doesn't take shit from anybody. In Prison Break, Mikey throws his life away to save Lincoln. In Days Gone, Deek more or less does the same. Does this remind you of another game? One with a little girl who you also must protect? That's right -- The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2. Except instead of talking about taking baths together, Deacon and Boozer become bounty hunters and roam the countryside on their motorcycles, bashing in the head of any freaker they come across. That's so much more realistic than the relationship between Amalie and Milm. Maybe it's different with sisters, but this is the best representation of a sibling relationship I've seen in a game this year (and I mentioned before that there were several good ones). How do brothers act? Well, for one thing, they don't get along all the time. They beat each other up all the time. Sometimes it's because they're mad and other times because they're messing around. Sometimes it starts as one and turns into the other. That's something this game portrays very well, despite its otherwise bloated story. I'm cool with Booze Man being a flawed character. You're not going to agree with everything he says, and there be times when he gets on your nerves. That's what brothers do. But there are a number of scenes much later in the game -- ones I don't want to get into here because I think some of you still plan to play this game -- that make him more complex than a meathead. To tell you the truth, I probably could've picked a number of characters from this game for this award. Iron Mike was really good. Rikki was good. I liked Deek too, and he gets a lot of flak for being a smug, self-righteous asshole (yet the homicidal maniac Nathan Drake gets excused for some reason). Best Character #2: Nezuko from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles Nezuko is a good girl. I'm exhausted just from typing all that... Anyway, this one might be slightly cheating because I'm probably basing it more on the anime than the game, but I actually really liked both iterations of this character. Nezuko is great in the show and arguably even better in the game because you get to play as her. She was easily my favorite character in the game to play as. If you haven't seen the anime or played the game, the basic plot is that Tanjiro and his little sister Nezuko are the only survivors of a demon attack on their family. The reason Nezuko has that bamboo stick in her mouth is because she's partially been turned into a demon and that's the only way to keep her from tasting human blood, which I guess would complete the transformation. As such, Tanjiro is trying to help her find a cure and...yeah, it's very similar to the plot of The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2, isn't it? Amazing how some games can do it so much better. Like a lot of great characters this year, Nezuko can't talk -- even without that muzzle in her mouth. That doesn't mean you can't feel her affection for her brother. When a demon attacks, she'll defend him at any cost. Being part-demon makes her an absolute powerhouse. And isn't that what siblings do -- come just short of eating each other to show how much they care? LEA: [shakes head] What do you mean? I'm trying to make a point here, Lea. LEA: Why? Well, that's the point of this thread. To give my opinion on things I'm passionate about. LEA: Why? Because some people seem to enjoy reading them...? LEA: Why! Why! WHYYY! Oh, fine. You know it's coming anyway. Best Character #3: Lea from CrossCode As if there was any doubt. I feel...like I could write an essay here. I don't want to do that. What looked like a knockoff from the girl on the cover of Wargroove turned into my favorite video game character this year. (I know I said these weren't in any order, but I lied.) Lea is a masterpiece in character design and development. I rarely give recognition for good writing in video games because I don't see it happen often, but CrossCode is the exception and I'm an absolute idiot for shelving this game for six months or whatever it was. Let's begin with the theme for 2022: characters that don't speak. Lea has a reason for being a (mostly) silent protagonist. In the game-within-the-game (remember, this takes place in the fictional VR game, CrossWorlds), Lea's "speech module" has malfunctioned. This limits her ability to say anything beyond a few short words. In the beginning, I think it's just "Hi" and her name. Her vocabulary eventually expands, but I don't think it ever goes past eight or nine words. That...obviously has an impact on what you can do with her character, right? Well, yes and no. For a long time, it was common for protagonists in video games -- especially RPGs -- to be mute. I think the main reason was so that players can use them as a self-insert. When you give characters a voice, you inherently give them a personality, which makes it harder to relate to that character if you don't share that personality or beliefs. (You could also end up like someone like Link from the Zelda cartoon. "Well, EXCUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME, PRINCESS.") What I think writers back then didn't realize is that silence IS a personality too. There a lot of people who can't speak. I've always been curious what someone who is deaf or mute feels about games that do that, because very few of those games ever acknowledge the fact that the protagonist doesn't have dialogue. In some cases, it's acknowledged by an NPC, but usually as a joke (i.e. "You don't say much do you, Mario?") or because there's no other way for your character to inform the NPC about something. In the latter case, you'll usually get some narrative text along the lines of, "You explained the situation to the shopkeeper..." As if that's any less immersion-breaking than your character saying a few words that don't perfectly align with your views on the world. One of the best examples -- and I mentioned this during my review of this game, I believe -- was Mario in Super Mario RPG. Ironically, that was the most personality I've ever seen given to Mario, and yet it's also the quietest he's ever been in a video game. There were no, "Wa-hoo!"s, "Let's-a go!"s, or "Mamma mia!"s. There was just Mario, rolling with the fact that he can't speak, playing charades with everyone. It was hilarious AND memorable. Seeing him run around the room or hopping on furniture or turning into other characters to get a point across was legitimately fun to watch. It was like someone took a character who was supposed to be a self-insert and realized they could still make him interesting. The point is: being mute doesn't have to hold the character back. These days, I feel we've kinda moved away from that. A lot of games with self-inserts give us dialogue choices now, which is fine. I've never really cared one way or the other if I agree with everything the character I'm playing as says. I'll still help Bubsy to the finish line and get Deacon St. John out of any situation he finds himself in. I'll do it because I enjoy video games, not because I need to feel justified in my decision-making. Why do I bring this up? Well, because Lea is a character I can relate to because of the actions of the game. And this is where I'm going to drop my obligatory Demon's Souls reference because it's the exact same thing as the Maiden Astraea fight. That fight broke the fourth wall for me because I had become the character I was playing as. It didn't matter that my character was mute or something I had designed. I felt an emotional connection to the character because we experienced the game together. You and Lea... You feel the connection. She loses her memories. You don't have any. She can't speak to the other characters. Neither can you. You feel distant and yet connected, and that's a really powerful thing that you can only really get with this medium. It's why I was always consider video games to be art, and why I think it has the most potential for good storytelling. And Lea has a personality. It's easy to see. She's smug as fuck -- just look at that face. She is more animated than a lot of 3D renders I've seen. Her happy expression melts my black heart. When she's sad, it breaks me. When she is going through an existential crisis, I feel that. Like holy shit, guys, I love this character. She doesn't do it alone either. She NEEDS this cast to thrive. I didn't get too much into the other characters in my review, but one of the first characters Lea meets is Emilie. Emilie, unlike Amalie from TWatHK2, is actually a GOOD character. She never stops talking. This could be annoying if her personality sucked, but she's super friendly and is a great contrast to Lea, who doesn't have the capability of making long conversation. We all have that friend who won't let us get a word in edgewise. They form a friendship and regularly compete against each other. You can see it in Lea's snark. She enjoys the competition and that makes you feel like you're somewhat competing against Emilie too. (Although I never won any of the dungeon races... Not sure if it's even possible.) It's hard to write this without going into more details...particularly the events that happen towards the mid and late-game...but I strongly encourage you guys to play through this game. I don't know if it's going to make it on to my GOTY list. This may be the last chance I get to talk about it. This game, like Days Gone, suffers from a lot of issues that I think are going to hold it back from a top 3 list, but they certainly have some of the best characters from the games I've played this year. Lea is a gem and it was a pleasure getting to know her. Edited December 21, 2022 by Cassylvania 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 (edited) On 12/15/2022 at 0:03 AM, Cassylvania said: But once you see there's very little difference in the choices you make...well, if you're anything like me, you're going to be amazed they couldn't tell a more cohesive story. This is why Eventide 2 is not an L for me despite the lie that "your choices matter", because no matter which of the two choices in each of the five decisions you have to make, the game continues as normal. The difference between Eventide 2 and ERICA is that the former has to keep the story consistent and has a good story, while the latter... meh. If Eventide 2 had a meh story, I'd have just platinumed it once and never again. (clap) That was a great awards ceremony. I hope 2023 has you play some games. And don't limit yourself to four next year. I know it's hard to organize this but just do what you did here and you'll be fine. Edited December 21, 2022 by Taruta13 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 We interrupt your regularly-scheduled awards ceremony to bring you this breaking news. Platinum #352 - Tactics Ogre Reborn If you're new here, I regularly blab on about games I played 20+ years ago. I don't know that there's a game I've talked more about than Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. It's pretty much the most uniquely-fun game I've ever played. What's interesting, though, is I've never played any other game in the Ogre Battle saga, including March of the Black Queen, which is supposed to be the most popular game in the series, and the original Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. (Similarly, I've played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but not the original FFT. This makes me a fraud.) This wasn't from a lack of interest, obviously. I just got into tactical RPGs later in my life and never went back to play the older games. When I saw they were remastering one of these games (and that's what this is -- a remaster, not a remake or "rebirth"), I committed the unforgivable sin of pre-ordering the game. I believe that makes this the second time this year I've done that. But tactical RPGs are in short supply on modern consoles. If we're specifically talking about turn-based strategy games, there's XCOM (another game I never shut up about), Valkyria Chronicles (fantastic series), The Banner Saga (fantastic series), Disgaea (really good series, but they need to chill on the grinding), and...well, then you get into stuff like God Wars, Fell Seal, Langrisser, and this year's stinker, Othercide, which aren't bad games, but they're not nearly as memorable to me. They also suffer from a syndrome I like to call not-being-as-good-as-Fire-Emblem, which is the best turn-based strategy RPG series that doesn't involve aliens or German tanks. So, I had high expectations going into this, but also the knowledge that this is NOT anything like Ogre Battle 64 (outside of maybe the writing and character models). That's not unsurprising. No game has ever been like OB64. That game's combat basically had you moving units around on a map in real time. Combat would only take place when two units would engage, and the battle was more or less simulated based on the position of the units on the battle grid and the direction from which they were attacked. Winning units would keep their position on the battlefield, while losing units would be pushed back. The basic goal was to capture or liberate strongholds as you advance across the map and defeat the boss of that area. There was so much strategy in that game, from the composition of your teams to the layout of your units to deciding when to advance and when to hold your position. Fire Emblem games have been very, very good at that too. To begin, I guess we should talk a little about the story. The two main characters are Denam Pavel, who you play as, and his sister Catiua. (I swear, I'm not purposely seeking out only games that have a sibling dynamic.) There's also some nerd named Vyce, who I guess is your childhood friend. Anyway, you're fighting against an oppression and have to make some tough decisions that will dramatically alter the story that takes place. In fact, there are three "routes" through the game: the Law route, the Neutral route, and the Chaos route. It's pretty obvious when in the story you're going to go down one of those routes, but not necessarily obvious which route it will be. I will say that I initially went down the Chaos route, but the Law route is probably the most interesting. I have nothing against the writing in this game. I will say I didn't really like the inclusion of voice acting, though. That's nothing against the VAs, who did a fine job. I just like to imagine what the characters sound like. OB64 is THE game when it comes to that. I don't know whether I'd call it good writing or bad writing, but I had a lot of fun picturing the entire cast as overly-dramatic theater actors. Lines like, "God knows where my mother is... ....and I can't stand... ...being around my father..." and "YUMILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!" are hilarious when you picture them like characters from Star Fox 64. Anyway, I at least appreciate the Chaos Frame being easier to understand than it was in OB64. To get the platinum in this game, you need to clear all three routes, but you can jump around to various points in the story once you beat the game for the first time. I think that essentially makes all of the trophies unmissable. The music is good. It's always good in these games. And the graphics are OK. What I really want to talk about is the gameplay, because I was very disappointed. Now, I get that, without this game, a lot of games I really like wouldn't exist. I also understand that this is a remaster, not a remake, so they're not going to completely rework the formula. There are just so many things I want to complain about, and I'm not even sure where to start. Let's start with how battles play out. You have a certain number of characters on your roster. You can usually deploy 10 or 12 units on the map. Denam must be one of those units. That's fine. There are a lot of recruitable characters and a good amount of classes to choose from. So, you have your dozen or so units and so does the enemy. Usually, they outnumber you. That's whatever. I think it makes sense for you to feel overwhelmed. You basically take turns exchanging blows until a unit is defeated. If it's an enemy unit, they're usually removed from the battlefield. If it's one of your units, though, a countdown begins. You only have three turns to either revive that unit or finish the battle. If you don't, that character is lost FOREVER. Call me cynical, but I actually like permadeath in games like this. It makes your playthrough unique. In Fire Emblem games, I'll sometimes purposely kill off characters I don't like or that are too overpowered. The problem with it in THIS game is that fainting is WAY too common because the balance isn't there. There's a "union level", which determines the maximum level any of your characters to be, and it essentially makes it so that you will always be on even footing with the enemy. That may seem balanced, but imagine playing any other RPG, where every enemy you encounter is just as powerful as you are. It means everything hits like a truck and every opponent is an HP sponge. Battles are an absolute slog, where you're just exchanging blows and hoping the enemy dies before you do. In fact, for much of game, the "winning condition" is simply to take out the leader of the opposing group. I generally found it easier to simply go after the boss because it was unlikely I'd have the time to wipe all the enemy units off the map before I lost somebody. (You don't even get the Resurrect spell until later in the game.) To make matters worse, maps aren't even fun or memorable. Pick a Fire Emblem game. If you show me a map, there's a good chance I'll remember where my units start, where the enemies attack from, and my overall strategy for completing that map. I feel like every map in those games was hand-crafted. You could take advantage of chokepoints or elevated ground to block enemies or help your weaker units gain experience. You...really don't get that with TOR. Yeah, "higher ground" exists. You can theoretically "block off" enemies by standing in certain spaces. But it's pretty rare, impractical, and doesn't really serve much of a purpose when most characters have multiple ways of attacking you. Every character, friendly or not, can have up to four spells equipped. They can also have one or two weapons. Every battle is essentially a grudge match, where you're thrown onto a map with very little to do but meet your opponent in the middle and hope for the best. It's Wargroove all over again. Now, to aid you, there are chariot cards. This is a built-in mechanism for save scumming. You have unlimited access to these and can revert back to any point in the last 50 moves. So, if you're in danger of losing a character and know you can't reach him in time, you can go back to an earlier turn and try something different. I abused the fuck out of this early on. It means you can be a little reckless, which means you can some amount of fun. It doesn't reset the RNG, though. So, for example, if you have a 30% chance to hit from a certain space on a certain turn, the game has already decided if that attack will hit or not. If you miss and go back to that turn, you will ALWAYS miss on that space with that attack during that turn. On the other hand, the game may have decided that moving one space forward or one space right will always result in a hit. I guess that means, like in chess, you're probably best off controlling the center of the board because it allows you the most potential spaces to attack from. I never bothered attacking unless I had at least a 1/3 chance to hit. My other issue with the game is the class system. For the most part, every unit can be every class. I...hate this. Like, I really hate this. It probably had to be done because you can "transfer" abilities from one class to another, but I rarely needed this. I'm not even sure which abilities can be transferred. The UI in this game is a mess. But having characters that specialize in certain areas is my favorite part of strategy games. I like only having one or two characters who can heal. I like wanting to protect my units because losing them would actually sting. You know what happens if I lose a cleric or another valuable unit? I either restart the map or I suck it up. Here, you can just buy another cleric. (I should point out that this game also has an infinite money glitch, so money is never an issue past a certain point.) If I can just buy another cleric, why have permadeath in the first place? How many units did I lose in this game? I think three. Two were early on, when I didn't realize there was no way to revive (or I didn't have access to it). The last was during floor 100 of the Palace of the Dead, a ridiculous, 35+ hour excursion that would break lesser men. I could've saved her, but that was the last floor I needed for a trophy, and I was nearly at the platinum at that point. This is also one of those games that plays itself...if you want. You can set any or all of your units to be controlled by the AI. Early on, I did this for my healers. But one thing you'll notice is the AI is stupid. (This will become painfully obvious when you reach any battle that has a guest character and you must protect that character in order for them to join your team.) I actually found it easier if I let the AI play my melee characters and I focused on the spellcasters. The AI doesn't seem smart enough to abuse Petrify or Charm, which I found to be the most powerful spells in the game. Charm confuses an enemy, essentially making them an ally for a turn or two, while Petrify turns them to stone, negating their next few turns. I was able to win most battles just by controlling a single character because of this. So... yeah, you're looking at an 80-ish hour platinum here, with maybe a 5/10 in difficulty? The early game is difficult because you don't have an easy way to revive. You only have Blessed Stones, which are rare and expensive. The late-game is difficult too because some of the fights are bullshit. I didn't even talk about pits yet. You remember how I said you have three turns to revive your units? Yeah, not if they get knocked backwards (via a critical hit) and fall off the map. That's insta-death. By far, the biggest reason I had to use the chariot cards. You also have undead units, which revive after three turns, unless you finish the battle or use Exorcise/Holy Water on them. Yeah, real cool having an UNDEAD DRAGON come back to life. I'm not sure where I'd rank this among tactical RPGs. It's nowhere near the top, but I think I preferred it over Fell Seal and Othercide. OK, I'm posting this before the blizzard knocks out my power and I lose yet another review. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 1 hour ago, Cassylvania said: Platinum #352 - Tactics Ogre Reborn I have a different outlook for this game, but I played the crap out FF tactics, still my favorite final fantasy, and also has better mechanics I think than this. You had to level up specific Jobs(classes) for a character to access others. For instance, to become a ninja they would first have to get to lvl 4 thief, lvl 3 archer and lvl 2 geomancer and they can only have 1 job at a time. That being said, after you make a character a certain class in Tactics Ogre, unless they use the same weapon type, there was no reason to change them. Leveling up the weapons is the longest part. Healing getting nothing from weapon levels is kinda lame too. Also, the named recruits you usually save are the better choice. 1 hour ago, Cassylvania said: I didn't even talk about pits yet. You remember how I said you have three turns to revive your units? Yeah, not if they get knocked backwards (via a critical hit) and fall off the map. That's insta-death. By far, the biggest reason I had to use the chariot cards. Had this experience all through the gardens recently. Worst is that I went through one level and a character got knocked off and something happened where my other character countered and finished the fight, I never had a chance to use Chariot and had to restart ?. Happy Holidays! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darling Baphomet Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 On 12/21/2022 at 11:27 AM, Cassylvania said: Best Character #1: Boozer from Days Gone I loved Boozer too! While the early parts of the game were a slot, that one scene where you got on the motorcycle near the end of the first act solidified the game as something special in my mind. More games need montages with music, IMO. I'm still peeved we're never getting a sequel. It's nice to see someone be positive about the game given it's poor reception. Also, I wasn't sure if you were using brother metaphorically there, but since you said sibling relationship, I'm pretty sure Boozer and Deacon aren't actually brothers - they were just in the same gang and grew so close they started thinking of eachother as such. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 9 hours ago, Grotz99 said: I have a different outlook for this game, but I played the crap out FF tactics, still my favorite final fantasy, and also has better mechanics I think than this. You had to level up specific Jobs(classes) for a character to access others. For instance, to become a ninja they would first have to get to lvl 4 thief, lvl 3 archer and lvl 2 geomancer and they can only have 1 job at a time. You know, I actually like that. If there was some incentive to actually switch classes, I probably would've used it more. The only character I played around with was Sara, and that's just because I got a better Archer later in the game and found the class underwhelming. I also switched classes for Denam for a bit so that he could learn Meditate, which I probably should've done for everyone (assuming other classes can use it). It was pretty funny soloing the final boss with him. 9 hours ago, Darling Baphomet said: Also, I wasn't sure if you were using brother metaphorically there, but since you said sibling relationship, I'm pretty sure Boozer and Deacon aren't actually brothers - they were just in the same gang and grew so close they started thinking of eachother as such. Oh, I think you're right. I remember them referring to each other as "brothers" at one point, but I guess it was just a biker thing. (Or maybe I'm confusing the game with Ride to Hell: Retribution. ?) Either way, yeah. Criminally underrated game. Did you think it was going to be a double platinum day? I didn't. Platinum #353 - Toem In my quest to justify a PS+ subscription in 2022, we have this little freebie from September. My reason for picking it over the others? Well, it looked a lot like Chicory. You know the song. ~It's beginning to look a lot like Chicory.~ Alright, it only looks like Chicory because it's monochrome, features anthropomorphic characters, and has an artsy theme. This time, we're taking pictures instead of painting the world in pastel colors. That's not a bad idea for a game. Pokemon Snap was pretty great. The problem with this game...well, there's not very much to it. You embark on a quest to see the mysterious Toem, which I guess is that magical crystal floating on top of a mountain in the platinum image there. It's the only color you'll see in the game. I guess you're like Jonas in The Giver or something. At any rate, you venture to various towns and complete side quests from random NPCs in order to earn stamps, which you can then use to take a bus to the next town to repeat the process all over again. There are four or five towns in the game (depending if you want to count your home as one of the areas), and they each have their own theme (e.g. forest, harbor, city, and snowy mountain). I would say each town is increasingly more complicated than the last one, but none of the quests are particularly hard. Most of the game is a simply a scavenger hunt. If you see an animal or anything that looks remotely interesting or out-of-place, you should probably take a picture of it because you'll likely need to show it to an NPC later on. Unlike Chicory, which gave me mixed messages when it comes to its intended audience, this game went straight-up PG. The craziest it gets is some bullies who splash you with mud. It's a bit unfortunate because one of the quests involved "creating some confusion" in the city and I was sure that it involved this one section where there's a lot of traffic that will come to a screeching halt when you use the crosswalk. I kept trying to bait the drivers into hitting me or ramming into each other...but no, you just had to take a picture of the guy with the parking ticket. I'm not going to say that a game HAS to allow mischief, but why tempt me like that? Anyway, it's cute. There's one section where you're playing the shell game (you might know it as Three-Card Monte) with a ghost. This is probably the only part of the game that could be considered "tricky", and that's only because you'll be too busy rocking to the music to keep your eye on the shell. Like, DAMN, Toem. Where do you get off having music this good? In fact, the whole OST is great. Give it a listen sometime, even if you're not going to play the game. For the price of free, you could do a lot worse. I'm going to go back tomorrow and finish up the DLC maybe. Happy holidays, everyone, and I'll see you after Christmas for the rest of the awards. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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